London has been battered by 50mph winds that have felled trees and caused travel chaos. Powerful gusts swept across the capital as the Met Office issued a yellow "be aware" weather alert for most of the country.

He could have been as stuffed as his creations: the billionaire founder of the 1990s toy craze Beanie Babies has admitted tax evasion after hiding more than $3 million of income in a secret Swiss bank account.

There’s renewed interest in Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers after a photograph of a version of the painting destroyed in the Second World War was unearthed. The National Gallery will be polishing the frames on its Van Gogh collection but also stocking up on merchandise including one unusual item — a soft doll of the Dutch post-impressionist with a Velcro-detachable ear.